Angela Merkel, winner of the Special Prize for the International Year of Biodiversity 2010

Mrs. Angela Merkel has demonstrated strong leadership of global environmental issues including climate change and biodiversity conservation policy at national, EU and international levels as the Chancellor of Germany. Mrs. Merkel received the Special MIDORI Prize for the International Year of Biodiversity 2010.

Profile

Angela Merkel (b. 1954) has demonstrated strong leadership of global environmental issues including climate change and biodiversity conservation policy at national, EU and international levels as the Chancellor of Germany. It is a notable achievement that Chancellor Merkel hosted the 9th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD/COP9), stimulated the discussion about business and biodiversity, and consolidated the mainstreaming of biodiversity that started at CBD/COP8.

Under Chancellor Merkel's strong leadership, Germany has endeavored to mainstream biodiversity and nature conservation in development strategies especially for the private sector. For the first time at a Group of Eight (G8) Summit, Chancellor Merkel focused on biodiversity at the Summit held in Heiligendamm, Germany, and raised head-of-state awareness about biodiversity as an important political issue. Similarly, intensive discussion about biodiversity was conducted at the G8 Environmental Ministers' meeting in Potsdam, and then the Potsdam Initiative (Biodiversity 2010) was adopted. As a part of the Potsdam Initiative, TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) and B & B (Business and Biodiversity initiative) were promoted, and such initiatives greatly promoted the mainstreaming of biodiversity from a socio-economic viewpoint. Based on the results of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005), Chancellor Merkel incorporated that "biodiversity constitutes the indispensable foundation of our lives and of global economic development" into the Chair's conclusion, demonstrating a recognition that biodiversity and ecosystem service are the very basis for economy and society.

Chancellor Merkel has also recently proposed to set up a new body to deal with the science of biodiversity to support decision makers in formulating their biodiversity conservation policies, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), a similar institution to the UN panel of climate scientists, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Germany took the lead in providing financial support for the conservation of biodiversity in the High-Level Segment of CBD/COP9, announced in 2008. Merkel pledged EUR 500 million for the protection of forests and ecosystems between 2009 and 2012 and an additional EUR 500 million each year thereafter under the Life Web initiative.

In summary, Chancellor Merkel has successfully raised global awareness of biodiversity as an important political issue. She has contributed to mainstreaming of biodiversity from a socio-economic viewpoint including initiating TEEB and B&B and greatly promoted the implementation of the Life Web Initiative, which contributes to expanding protected areas, and the establishment of IPBES. Her achievements are highly valued and deserve this year's special prize that commemorates the International Year of Biodiversity (IYB).

Biographical Summary

• 1973～1978 Studied Physics at Leipzig University
• 1986 Awarded a doctorate
• 1978～1990 Member of the academic staff at the Central Institute of Physical Chemistry at the Academy of Sciences
• 1990 Deputy Government Spokeswoman of the de Maizière Government
• 1990～ Member of the German Bundestag
• 1991～1994 Federal Minister for Women and Youth
• 1994～1998 Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety
• 1998～2000 General Secretary of the CDU Germany
• 2000～ Chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union Germany (CDU)
• 2002～2005 Chairwoman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag
• 2005～ Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany

Record of Honors and Awards

• 2006〜2009 The Most Powerful Woman in the World (Forbes Magazine)
• 2007 Honorary doctorate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• 2008 Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 2008 Charlemagne Prize
• 2008 Honorary doctorate from Leipzig University
• 2008 Honorary doctorate from Wrocław University of Technology (Poland)
• 2008 CBD Award

Articles and Publications

• 1986 Doctoral thesis "Untersuchung des Mechanismus von Zerfallsreaktionen mit einfachem Bindungsbruch und Berechnung ihrer Geschwindigkeitskonstanten auf der Grundlage quantenchemischer und statistischer Methoden"